§ MR. CRAWFORDsaid, he would beg to move that the Select Committee on the Endowed Schools Bill do consist of twenty-two Members, with the view of moving that Mr. Alderman Lawrence be added to the Committee, in order to secure the representation of the City of London more efficiently on it.
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERsaid, he did not rise to object to the Motion. Certainly a Committee of twenty-one Mem- 124 bers was a large Committee, and it was undesirable generally to increase it. The object of appointing the Committee was to secure that there should be a full consideration—first, of the general question; and, secondly, of the special interests concerned. He had hoped that in the Committee, as originally named, the very large interests of the City of London had been provided for; but, on understanding that this was not the case so much as he thought it had been, he could not object to the Motion of his hon. Friend to add his Colleague in the representation of the City.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Select Committee on the Endowed Schools Bill to consist of Twenty-two Members:—Mr. Alderman LAWRENCE added to the Committee.
§ MR. J. LOWTHERsaid, he would beg to move that the Committee do consist of twenty-three Members, with the view of adding the name of Mr. Collins. It was the general rule that the balance of parties on public Committees should be maintained, and that would not be the case with the Committee as now agreed to. Except by himself and another hon. Member, the North of England was not represented on the Committee, though in York and other cities, towns and districts of the North very valuable endowments existed. He agreed that it was very inconvenient that names should be added in this manner to Committees already large enough; but it would be hard if the Government assented to an additional Member from the Ministerial side, and refused a similar favour to the Opposition.
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERsaid, he regretted that he must oppose the Motion. He had endeavoured to give as large a representation to the other side of the House as to his own. The hon. Gentleman had, however, forgotten that there were not only two sides of that House to be represented, but also special interests, which were not very favourable to the objects of the Bill. It was not to his interest, as the promoter of the Bill, to add Members to the Committee representing special interests, but five representatives of these interests had been appointed, three of whom represented large schools that objected to the Bill. Putting these three Gentlemen out of view, he believed that the Opposition 125 had a majority, and it would be unreasonable, therefore, to add the proposed name to the Committee.
§ MR. COLLINSsaid, he was, of course, not going to vote upon the Motion, but with regard to the majority on the Committee, the right hon. Baronet the Member for Droitwich (Sir John Pakington) and the right hon. Gentleman the Member for North Staffordshire (Mr. Adderley) had on former occasions somewhat separated themselves from their party on the question of education.
§ MR. LOCKEsaid, he thought the Vice President of the Committee of Council (Mr. W. E. Forster) had brought this discussion upon himself, because he had left out of the Committee any representative for the City, where there was a larger number of schools affected by the Bill than in any other part of the country. Now, when he was compelled to have one such Member, he was obliged to choose one of Liberal politics. He did not suppose that he had acted in this way advisedly. But still he was not a man who did things by accident. It was true the Liberals had a majority upon the Committee, but the question was one which would not depend upon party matters. He thought the proposal of the hon. Member opposite (Mr. J. Lowther) was a reasonable one. and he should vote for it.
§ Motion made, and Question, ''That the Select Committee do consist of Twenty-three Members,"—(Mr. James Lowther,)—put, and negatived.
§ Sir JOHN HAY discharged from attendance on the Committee; Lord ROBERT: MONTAGU added to the Committee.